The Russian Volunteer Corps, an armed formation that has claimed responsibility for multiple incursions into Russia from across the Ukrainian border, said in a video released Thursday morning that the group’s members were once again on Russia’s border and were approaching the “outskirts of Shebekino,” a town in the Belgorod region.
Another armed group, the Freedom of Russia Legion, which claims to be a unit of the Ukrainian military made up of Russian volunteers, also announced a new raid into Russian territory:
We, the Freedom of Russia Legion, are currently located near the border of our homeland. Very soon, we’ll move once again onto the territory of Russia in order to bring freedom, peace, and calm. Grayvoron was just the beginning.
According to the Telegram channel Baza, “saboteurs” carried out an attack on the Shebekino border checkpoint on Thursday morning, but the attack was repulsed by Russian border forces.
Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported Thursday morning that Shebekino was “under relentless fire,” but he did not comment on the reports of incursions across the border.
According to Russian state media, the Belgorod region's operational headquarters denied that there had been a “breakthrough by the Ukrainian military” near Shebekino but said there was “shelling” and that “sounds of combat” could be heard.
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